Re: style query

[Jane Bergen <janeb -at- ANSWERSOFT -dot- COM>]

At 03:58 PM 2/27/97 +0200, Patricia Carmel wrote:

>click or click on a button: Coming as I do from the Mac style guide which
>advocates 'click the button', 'click on' is anathema. However as I become

I use "Click" without "on" as I generally follow the Microsoft Manual of
Style (Microsoft Press, 1995, ISBN 1-55615-939-0). They say do NOT use
"on". I use "click" for anything the user clicks with a mouse...menus,
icons, buttons, etc. except check boxes.

I use "Enter" for the function buttons and Enter, Shift, Ctrl, Alt, etc.
because the user really DOES press these.

I use "check" and "clear" for check boxes.

I bold names of buttons, commands, menus, dialog window titles, etc. and
use Arial font, 9 pt. I use Book Antiqua, 10 pt for regular text.

I use the word "Type" instead of "Enter" when I really want the user to
type. To me the word "Enter" used for typing (As in "Enter your first
name") is sometimes confusing with the Enter key.

I also keep a word list and circulate it regularly to the developers. The
list is for spelling words like online vs on-line, check box vs checkbox,
word wrap vs wordwrap, etc. and helps me maintain my sanity (sort of...).

Hope that helps.

Jane Bergen
Jane Bergen, Technical Writer
AnswerSoft, Inc.    Dallas, TX
janeb -at- answersoft -dot- com

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